Vivek Paul

Vivek Paul (born 1958) is an Indian American businessman who is currently an adjunct professor at Stanford University.. He formerly served as CEO and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Wipro Limited. He is acknowledged to be a leading force in building Wipro Technologies from a $150 million software business to a $1.4 billion entity.

His career included spells as a public company CEO, investor and entrepreneur. Ten of his direct reports have gone on to become public company CEO's. He has served on the Boards of several companies as well as non-profit organizations. He was part of the team of a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), that did a successful IPO on the NASDAQ.

Early life, education and career

Paul was born in India and received Bachelor of Engineering degree from Birla Institute of Technology and Science-Pilani and MBA from University of Massachusetts Amherst. He did his schooling from St. Columba's in New Delhi. Paul began his business career at PepsiCo where his outstanding talents were quickly recognized.

GE

In 1990, Paul was part of the founding team of WiproGE Medical Systems, and became its CEO in 1994. The joint venture started as a sales and service arm, went on to manufacturing, and then design and build of medical equipment, becoming India's largest exporter of high value electronics goods. Paul was then asked to lead GE's worldwide CT scanner business. Paul reorganized operations across its China, Japan and US operations, and launched GE as the first major multi-detector CT provider. The work in complex product development became a foundation of "Design For Six Sigma".. In one of the books about Jack Welch, Paul was cited as among the top 5 All Star CEO's from GE.

Wipro

In 1999, Paul was asked to become Vice Chairman of Wipro and CEO of its outsourcing unit. Wipro was a $150-million company when Vivek Paul took over, and it had all the tendencies of a small, traditional company. Paul has been credited with creating a global business and for much of Wipro's growth into a multibillion-dollar company. On 19 October 2000, Wipro was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Paul was recognized as among the top 6 managers in the world by Jack Welch in one of his books, as well as by several business magazines.

TPG Capital

In June 2005, Paul joined private equity firm, TPG Capital, as an investing partner spanning various fund classes, from buyout to Asia to venture capital. He went on to be a Founding Partner of TPG Growth, a fund focussed on growth capital for midsize companies. He resigned from TPG in December 2008.

Kinetic Glue

Founded KineticGlue, a cloud based enterprise social media application in 2008. Sold company to BMC in 2013.

Stanford

Paul co-founded the Microbiome Alliance at Stanford, and was the driving force behind the first Microbiome Symposium at Stanford in 2014. The sixth annual Stanford Microbiome Symposium will be held in September 2021. Paul also co-chaired the Biodesign program of 2014–2015.

Electronic Arts

Paul served on the board of Electronic Arts from 2005 to 2019, and was Chair of its CEO Selection Committee in 2013.

Paul has served on the advisory council of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, on the board of the California Chamber of Commerce, on the board of the U.S.-India Business Council, and on the Senate of BITS, Pilani.

Acknowledgments

• Ranked among the best managers in the world by BusinessWeek in 2003.
• Among the top global business influentials by Time magazine in 2004.
• Among the top 30 most respected global CEOs by Barron's in 2005.